Quick Answer:
You can record past gameplay on your PC with the built-in Xbox Game Bar on Windows 10 and later, the preinstalled GeForce Experience on computers that use GeForce GPUs, or the freeware, OBS Studio.
When recording game clips on your PC, it’s not only important to capture real-time gameplay but also to be able to capture recent moments, such as recording the last 30 seconds or 5 minutes to document what happened on your computer. If you’re wondering how to record past gameplay on PC, rest assured that you’ve come to the right place for simple solutions. Read on to check the proven ways and then use any of them to clip gameplay on PC with ease.
Table of contents
How to Record Past Gameplay on PC with Xbox Game Bar
If you are going to record gameplay on a PC running Windows 10 or later, you don’t need any third-party tool to help. Instead, there is a built-in game recorder available for help, Xbox Game Bar. As its name indicates, Xbox Game Bar is primarily designed for gameplay recording. With its background recording feature, you can easily record the last 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or 10 minutes to capture what happened on your computer.
To record past gameplay on PC:
Step 1. Go to Start > Settings > Gaming > Captures.
Step 2. Enable Background recording and select the time you’d like to capture, such as 30 seconds or 5 minutes.
Step 3. Finish other recording settings.
Step 4. When you are in a game, press Windows-Alt-G to capture the most recent gameplay.
Step 5. Go to Xbox Game Bar (Windows-G) > Widget Menu > Gallery to check the game clip.
However, although Xbox Game Bar allows you to effortlessly record gameplay on PC, it won’t help when you need to record yourself playing video games: it doesn’t support webcam recording. If you want to record yourself playing a game, using a third-party tool like SurFlex Screen Recorder will come in handy.
How to Record Gameplay on PC via NVIDIA ShadowPlay
If your computer uses a GeForce GPU from NVIDIA, there is another preinstalled gameplay recorder available for you to record past moments on your computer, which is GeForce Experience. It includes NVIDIA ShadowPlay, a screen recorder that allows you to clip the last 15 seconds to 20 minutes on your computer via its Instant Replay feature.
NVIDIA ShadowPlay enables you to create gaming videos in various quality levels, ranging from 360p to 8K. You can also customize the video quality, frame rate, and bitrate of the recording according to your needs. In short, if your PC has GeForce Experience available, you can clip gameplay on your PC in high quality with ease.
Let me take how to clip the last 5 minutes on PC for example.
To record the last 5 minutes on PC with NVIDIA ShadowPlay:
Step 1. Open GeForce Experience on your PC and sign in.
Step 2. Make sure your game is detected by this app. If not, click the More option (three dots) and click Scan for games & apps to add your game to GeForce Experience.
Step 3. When you are playing the game, press Alt-Z to open the GeForce Experience overlay.
Step 4. Click Settings > Video Capture to select the replay length, quality, resolution, and more. Then click Back.
Step 5. Click Instant Replay and choose Turn on.
Step 6. While playing the game, press Alt-F10 to save the past gameplay to your PC.
Step 7. Go to Gallery in the GeForce Experience overlay to check the game clip.
How to Record Past Gameplay on PC with OBS Studio
OBS Studio also allows you to record what happened on your PC via its Replay Buffer feature. If you want to use this freeware to record game clips on your device, check the guide on how to use OBS to record gameplay for more details. Whether you want to record a clip from now on or capture previous plays, you will learn how to do it from the guide.
Wrapping Up
Whether you need to record the last 10 minutes or any other specific period, you can accomplish it using one of the aforementioned tools. Undoubtedly, these tools are also valuable for capturing real-time gameplay on your computer. If your objective is to record gaming videos for YouTube, you can still apply the tips provided here to achieve your goals.